[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 96 (Monday, June 11, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Page S3634]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
SA 2645. Mr. LANKFORD submitted an amendment intended to be proposed
to amendment SA 2282 submitted by Mr. Inhofe (for himself and Mr.
McCain) and intended to be proposed to the bill H.R. 5515, to authorize
appropriations for fiscal year 2019 for military activities of the
Department of Defense, for military construction, and for defense
activities of the Department of Energy, to prescribe military personnel
strengths for such fiscal year, and for other purposes; which was
ordered to lie on the table; as follows:
At the end of subtitle I of title VIII, add the following:
SEC. 896. SENSE OF CONGRESS ON SERVICE ACQUISITION REFORM.
(a) Findings.--Congress makes the following findings:
(1) Failure to expeditiously implement the improvements
required by section 2329 of title 10, United States Code, is
an opportunity cost to buying back the readiness and
modernizing the Department of Defense's capabilities.
(2) Every unaccountable expenditure of funds has the
potential for waste and duplication of effort.
(3) The Government Accountability Office determined in a
February 20016 report that the Department of Defense's
contract services budget justifications ``provide limited
visibility to Congress on planned spending, and the primary
exhibit for contracted services does not meet statutory
reporting requirements''.
(4) Financial auditability requires assurance that funds
are obligated and expended in the proper amounts during the
appropriate time periods consistent with their intended
purposes.
(5) The Department's most recent contractor inventories
submitted to Congress on February 25, 2018, included
``approximately 25 percent, or just under $42 billion, of the
department's total $160 billion-plus spend for contracted
services''.
(6) The Department committed on April 16, 2018, to provide
Future Year Defense Program level detail to support the
budget exhibit required by section 2329 and committed to
provide bi-annual briefings on its progress in implementing
this requirement.
(7) The Office of the Chief Management Officer Reform teams
have been coordinating efforts to meet the requirement for
Future Year Defense Program detail for contract services.
(8) The Under Secretary of Defense, Comptroller uses object
classes from the Office of Management and Budget Circular A-
11, Preparation, Submission, and Execution of the Budget
(July 2017) displayed in budget justifications exhibits
arranged by appropriation.
(9) The Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and
Sustainment uses Services Portfolio Groups constructed from
Product Services Codes used in the Federal Procurement Data
System-Next Generation based on the definition of services
contracts in part 37 of the Federal Acquisition Regulation.
(10) The Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and
Readiness has issued policies for determining the appropriate
mix between the Department of Defense civilian workforce and
contract services and how to evaluate their scope based on
functions that have been or should be performed by the
military and the civilian Federal government workforce in
Department of Defense Instruction 1100.22, Policy and
Procedures for Determining Workforce Mix.
(11) The Director of Cost and Program Evaluation has issued
policies for comparing the costs of the Department of Defense
civilian workforce and contract services in Department of
Defense Instruction 7041.04, Estimating and Comparing the
Full Costs of Civilian and Active Duty Military Manpower and
Contract Support.
(12) Full accountability for the approximately
$160,000,000,000 spent annually on contract services is
required for good stewardship on behalf of the taxpayer
irrespective of whether these funds are expended through
prime or subcontract arrangements and irrespective of the
method of procurement used, whether as a commercial item or
service or any other means.
(b) Sense of Congress.--Congress--
(1) supports full implementation of Future Year Defense
Program detail visibility of spending on contract services to
accompany the budget exhibit required by section 2329 of
title 10, United States Code; and
(2) supports Department of Defense efforts to coordinate
consistent and broad definitions of services contracts to
ensure full accountability for every dollar obligated and
expended with the full expectation that any future
clarifications of services contract definitions will not
reduce the scope of coverage of the $160,000,000,000
currently spent on contract services.
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